Marigold - Germination

Last year we bought marigolds seeds and germination was prolific. Later in season, grabbed some reduced container grown marigolds as many of ours had been decimated by slugs. When they died back, we collected seed heads and have sown trays of them, weeks ago. Results; ZERO GERMINATION ! Is anyone else having problems? Is weather not right? (Trying both in & out of propagator) Are shop sold tub varieties bred not to breed? Do insects not like them? Anyone help, or shall I just go out and buy some seeds?

 

Are they French or English marigolds (tagetes or calendula)? I sowed some calendula in the open ground back in March and those are coming up fine....

 

Not calendula. Remember in childhood, mum could never get rid of them. These are french targetes family......

 

Marigolds should germinate easily . maybe the seed heads you collected were not viable . Buy a packet of seed and try again , you should get 90% germination.

 

No problems buying seed but interested in getting to the bottom of why own seeds, and we collected many heads, are not viable......Hence throwing the question out to wider experienced audience

 

I sowed saved Tagetes seeds saved last year and got poor germination and sowed again very thickly to get a reasonale amount showing. The year before that mice stole all the seeds before I cojld gather any and used them as nesting material.

Probably easier to get 5 packets of seeds for £1 from Lidl.

 

Ok, so drying out was on top shelf in greenhouse, where they stayed all winter - so, obviously lots of light......do they need to be in dark? What are ideal overwintering conditions for own seeds? Obviously, in the 'old days' gardeners only had their own seeds. I know some things need stratification, but marigolds?

 

Brilliant. Thank you. I'll try again next winter. Plenty of airtight containers go to bin. I'll divert some for seed duties......

 

I've not had great results from saved seed this year. But over the last 3 years with saved seed from previous year I have had no problems.

Problem is I have told other family members not to get marigolds from garden centres as I will have loads. I think I will need to get a packet and re sow some more

Rusty

 

Lady on the plot opposite me has had problems with tagetes this year too, not a single one has come up for her but these are from shop bought seeds not self-saved.. I started a few off last Weds/Thurs, off up tomorrow to check them

 

This non germination is very strange . Marigolds are usually your easy starter , when you begin to grow from seed .

 

I'm tending to think the French Marigolds you grew last year were F1 hybrids?

Often, because they don't set fertile seed, ie they are sterile, they flower much more, which is just one of the things that makes F1s a cut above the rest.
Unfortunately you have to buy fresh seed every year.